Review of Extraordinary Measures (2010) by Dean M — 18 Jun 2011

Taking a break from trying to amuse the kids with forgettable family films, Brendan Fraser is trying to save the kids with tolerable family drama.

The first feature made by CBS Films, Extraordinary Measures is largely bereft of the mawkish excess of recent kids-with-cancer slog Matching Jack. Sick children and Crowley's (Fraser) selfless wife Aileen (Keri Russell) often disappear, leaving us with starstruck Fraser and Harrison Ford arguing, or fighting the power. Jared Harris is suitably terse as a cold-hearted pharmaceutical "suit", yet professionally crabby Ford ensures that those on the front line of medicine aren't whitewashed as altruistic saints.

This is terribly tense - or draining, even with Fraser's constant effort to prove he's a serious performer by bugging his eyes in a serious manner. But being unaffected by the prime objective is impossible.